277 pages : 24 cm

Imagine a country populated with nothing but millionaires. Let's call it Richistan...In this riveting book, "Wall Street Journal" reporter Robert Frank explores the lives and lifestyles of a new breed of millionaires and billionaires - many of them self-made and from blue-collar backgrounds - and how this new gilded age is affecting wider society. Profiles of 'instapreneurs', dot-com billionaires, and eccentrics from the lower and upper reaches of Richistan take us into the rarified world of people like Ed Bazinet, who became a multi-millionaire by selling miniature ceramic villages, and Tim Blixseth, who earned billions by trading remote stretches of timberland. The influence wielded by the newly wealthy goes far beyond their earning power, and Frank also explores the lifestyles developing around them (butler schools and a new type of service employee, self-help groups for people worth $10 million or more) as well as where their money is going (the commodification of the art world, the rise of 'market-driven' philanthropy). As wealth creation becomes more and more globalised, "Richistan" looks behind the glitz to find the real story of new money and its impact on the world

Includes index

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-260) and index

Introduction : the birth of a nation -- 1. Butler boot camp : housetraining the new rich -- 2. The third wave : the era of the instapreneur -- 3. Making it : Ed Bazinet, king of the ceramic village -- 4. Living it : Tim Blixseth -- 5. Losing it : Pete Musser -- 6. Barbarians in the ballroom : new money vs. old -- 7. Size really does matter : "my boat is bigger than your boat" -- 8. Performance philanthropy : giving for results -- 9. Move over, Christian Coalition : the new political kingmakers -- 10. Worried wealth : the trouble with money -- 11. Aristokids : we'll always have Paris -- 12. The wealth gap and the future of Richistan

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